Online marketing and advertising tools directory. The number of online marketing tools is exponentially growing. This blog is an attempt to organize and make these tools accessible to marketers.

Every day new marketing and advertising tools are being introduced that will supposedly help everyone in marketing and advertising do our jobs faster, cheaper and better. This blog is my attempt to try or learn about them all. I'll keep up with it until the task becomes so overwhelming that I run from this profession to do something more calming, such as being a goat herder in Peru. Please share your suggestions and ideas as new tools are introduced faster than any marketer could keep up.

Every month I get a question from clients regarding the ability to embed video in email HTML templates. Unfortunately, the answer is that you cannot when using most email clients.

For the vast majority of desktop, tablet and mobile email clients, the answer is no, even with HTML 5.

I found this chart from Email on Acid (they also supply all of the HTML code) that does a good job laying out the state of video support in email. From a market share perspective, about half of emails sent can support playback within the email client and a half cannot. Developers should code html so that the default image displays in any client that does not support video, particularly since some clients will display the video player, but the video is unplayable, creating confusion.

Net, the idea to embed video in email is still a bad idea unless targeting Apple Mail and Samsung Galaxy customers specifically that use the native mail applications of those platforms.

One important facet of Search Engine Optimization is understanding the depth and frequency of the GoogleBot crawl. Said another way, there are strategies for maximizing the number of pages indexed or crawled by the search engines. This is particularly important for sites that are not frequently updated, that do not focus on recent news or those that are 1,000 pages or more.

Here are some helpful resources to understand the many sides of this issue:

Proficiency in marketing comes from knowledge and application. One way to improve the learning side of the equation is to take some free online marketing courses from Google. It's especially useful for Google Analytics. Courses are available in these locations:

I wanted to share some thoughts on Google's in-page analytics feature via email. In my experience, in-page analytics has always been super buggy, and I've never been able to get a lot of value out of it. That said, I'm definitely a fan of heatmap analysis, and even more so, session recording services. There are two very affordable alternatives that we recommend over Google's in-page analytics. They're significantly more stable, and provide way more value. The tools are FullStory and HotJar.

If you are looking for a quick guide to effectively advertising on Facebook, then I highly recommend this site put together by Buffer.The site and downloadable PDF covers the 11 ways you can advertise of Facebook along with specs and guidelines. It covers everything you need to know. As a bonus resource, take a look at Snappa for creating Facebook campaign graphics (also good for any type of online graphics.)

Just came across a site that offers super high quality PowerPoint templates. The site, Showeet has many free options and remember that the graphics can be used to enhance websites and other materials in addition to PowerPoint.

If you are monetizing a blog you will need a media kit. It makes you look more professional to brands and puts forth the message that you treat your blog as a serious business. Brands want to work with professional bloggers they can count on not to flake out on fulfilling their side of the deal. This is a helpful media kit guide. You can also improve the design with one of these media kit templates.

Consider adding testimonials to the media kit, particularly from professional bloggers.

Books

Ray Dalio: Principles: Life and WorkA radical way to improve individual and organizational performance. Highly actionable advice. You will never think about running a meeting the same way again. (*****)

Derek Sivers: Anything You WantGreat 77 page read on the philosophy that drives CD Baby's success. Well written, honest and great reminder of how to build a great company. Perfect business book for a plane ride. (*****)